Reserves Fall Below $16 Billion As Bolivar Currency Tumbles Past 500

Venezuela's reserves fell to a new low Monday of $15.87 billion, the lowest the beleauguered country's Central Bank reserves have been since August of 2003 when oil was $25 a barrel. In addition, it appears that the country has also borrowed $1.5 billion against its gold reserves, as the amount of gold fell that $1.5 billion in March, according to the March Central Bank accounts released last month. Venezuela's reserves are now down $8.387 billion since the beginning of March. By way of comparison to Venezuela's $15.87 billion, Brazil has $362.74 billion, Peru has $60.97 billion, Colombia has $46.54 billion, Chile has $38.03 billion, and even in-default Argentina has $31.49 billion. More…